Mr. Xavier Barré graduated from Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (Paris) and holds a Doctorate of Law from Paris University – I and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. He is admitted to practice law in New York, Paris and Moscow. Having started his career as a lawyer in New York, and then Paris, he advised corporations on international business law, including contract law, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and banking law. He currently provides legal advice in Moscow, and extends assistance to legal reform and private sector development in transition countries of Eastern Europe and CIS countries, with focus on management of strategic regional projects.

Mr. Barré is the Team Leader of the Rule of Law Platform - Central Asia.

STEFAN HANISCH

Germany

Mr. Stefan Hanisch studied Law, East European Studies and Central Asian Studies at Humboldt University Berlin, Free University of Berlin and Saint Petersburg State University. As a research associate at the Kelso Professorship of Comparative Law, East European Business Law and European Legal Policy at Viadrina European University Frankfurt-on-Oder and before at the Institute for East European Studies, Free University of Berlin, he worked on numerous projects and studies concerning the legal and economic development of the East European countries in transition. Furthermore, he has participated as a legal expert and consultant in various development co-operation projects with the Post-Soviet states.

Mr. Hanisch is the Legal Expert of the Rule of Law Platform - Central Asia.